Friday, April 21, 2006

Mr. Ethics steps down

Rep. Al Mollohan (D-W.Va.) steps down as ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee:

“I have reluctantly concluded that the interests of both the [ethics] committee and my constituents would best be served by my temporarily stepping aside as ranking member while I deal with this attack,” the West Virginian wrote to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) Friday. Pelosi accepted his request in a press release, praising his work and calling the attacks “an attempt to deflect attention from the long list of Republican criminal investigations, indictments, plea agreements, and resignations.” Still, it was Pelosi who placed a telephone call to Mollohan Friday morning to ask for his temporary resignation, a Democratic source said. ...The editorial boards of the Washington Post, and the New York Times, as well as the liberal-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have all weighed in against him. The National Republican Congressional Committee last week began sponsoring automated calls in four Democratic districts urging constituents to demand that their congressman ask for Mollohan’s resignation.Mollohan remained defiant in his letter to Pelosi. He called the allegations “meritless,” “frivolous” and “a concerted, politically motivated attack on my ethics.”

Right. A partisan witch hunt for the West Virginia Beach Boy. (Here's more from Don Surber.) This kind of thing was predictable. As soon as Pelosi seized on the "culture of corruption" sound bite, it was fated that Democrats would start falling like dominoes.